NCPA urges Pennsylvania lawmakers to support pharmacy audit bill

In a letter to Pennsylvania state lawmakers, the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) urged the leaders to support legislation concerning pharmacy audits.

H.B. 727 would set fair and common sense protections for community pharmacies against abusive auditing practices by pharmacy benefit managers, according to NCPA’s letter.

“This important legislation is based on a simple principle: When a pharmacist dispenses the right medication to the right patient at the right time, as prescribed by a doctor, it should not be a punishable offense,” said NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA. “Pharmacists recognize the need for legitimate audits to protect public and private health plans from waste, fraud, and abuse. However, pharmacy-auditing practices are out of control. Time-consuming, abusive audits compromise pharmacists’ availability to counsel patients. Increasingly, they appear to be more about generating revenue for the middleman than rooting out fraud.”

If Pennsylvania joins the movement to pass the bill, it would be among 23 other states that have enacted similar laws to protect their small businesses.